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Move Carts

Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 12:10 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 12:10 a.m.

Most every large store that has an equally large parking lot and utilizes grocery carts has corrals or some type of holding station for used carts. Nothing is worse than locating an empty parking space only to find it occupied by a used cart that a previous shopper was too lazy to walk across the aisle to put it in the corral. What's worse are half-empty corrals with carts scattered all around the outside where shoppers are too lazy to push them just a little farther.

Publix even offers no-tipping assistance, which shoppers decline but don't put the carts up when they empty them. Obviously these people have never had their cars hit by one of these abandoned carts that decides to roll or had to park on the other side of the parking lot because convenient spaces are full of carts.

Yes, many times I've been to Walmart where the corrals are busting at the seams with carts and the management isn't keeping up with retrieval, but if the carts are at least pushed up to the full corrals instead of scattered the unusable parking spaces are in one location, not all over the parking lot.

A little understanding can be given to parents who have small children in the car and don't want to leave them unattended, but, in most cases, they could unload the groceries and take the child out of the cart at the corral and secure them in the car on their return.

<p>Most every large store that has an equally large parking lot and utilizes grocery carts has corrals or some type of holding station for used carts. Nothing is worse than locating an empty parking space only to find it occupied by a used cart that a previous shopper was too lazy to walk across the aisle to put it in the corral. What's worse are half-empty corrals with carts scattered all around the outside where shoppers are too lazy to push them just a little farther.</p><p>Publix even offers no-tipping assistance, which shoppers decline but don't put the carts up when they empty them. Obviously these people have never had their cars hit by one of these abandoned carts that decides to roll or had to park on the other side of the parking lot because convenient spaces are full of carts.</p><p>Yes, many times I've been to Walmart where the corrals are busting at the seams with carts and the management isn't keeping up with retrieval, but if the carts are at least pushed up to the full corrals instead of scattered the unusable parking spaces are in one location, not all over the parking lot.</p><p>A little understanding can be given to parents who have small children in the car and don't want to leave them unattended, but, in most cases, they could unload the groceries and take the child out of the cart at the corral and secure them in the car on their return.</p><p>LINDA CLARK</p><p>Lakeland</p>